Ramsey Show Reacts To Living on LESS Than $25/Hour! 

I’m living in my parents home for as long as I can. I literally do not give a f what people say, society is way too expensive.

I would love for these two to do a real life mockup. Search jobs in a city for an entry level wage, find an apartment in the ads, find the cost of electric, water, heat for that size apartment. Calculate the gas to the job they picked. Find the cost of groceries, insurances, etc in the area. Do the hard numbers and tell us what's needed team Ramsey

Learn to cook, then learn to plan your meals, then learn to buy what's on sale, then learn to love leftovers. You will save a lot of money.

It was a lot easier to make it when I made $13 an hour a few years ago. Compared to over $20+ now. . . And no my expenses haven't changed. The cost of living is just that high.

Who tf pays $127 a month for a cell phone???

We are a family of 5, living on a single income. $21 an hour, no car payment or streaming, with a $400 a month mortgage payment. Groceries, Pampers and clothes combined for all 5 of us is less than $500 most months, and unless we have some majorly abnormal bills (this spring it was catch up dentist work) it is actually fairly easy to save up. We do work more than 40 hour weeks (husband at his job, wife at homemaking, cooking, sewing clothes and garden work) but it is a good fulfilling life! Maybe we need to do a ticktock about it and peace-monger.

I've lived on my own for 7-8 years now, I currently make 18/hr. Working 40 hrs a week typically. I get all my bills paid, eat well-not expensively, tithe, and still put a couple hundred away every biweekly paycheck. Don't tell me you need 32.50 an hour to live.

Delayed gratification is a superpower in the current culture.

It definitely depends on your state. Cost of living has exceeded wages for a long time. I make 75k a year and my townhouse mortgage is nearly 50% of my take home pay. This is not how it used to be.

I used to live in dc making $30 an hour. I lived in a high crime neighborhood with mice. It was all I could afford. My rent was $1,070 and I had to make 3x the rent to qualify. I didn’t have a car note, just utilities and cell phone bill. I moved because the mice were in the walls and ceilings. I moved to MD where the average apartment in my area is $1600. I ended up moving back home. Once I graduate school, I hope to move into a nice mouse free apartment with no roommates.

While I agree one get get a cheaper apartment or find roommates, and get a cheaper car, he's missing a lot of bills. He didn't account for health insurance. You won't be keeping that job if you aren't buying soap, shampoo, laundry detergent, etc. What about money aside for co-payments at the doctor? What about saving money aside for renewing license plates?

Back when I was making $13 an hour I would say that it was not a living wage. Of course I had a $400 car payment and would spend $200-300 a month on clothes, go out to eat, and did not budget. Looking back if I tightened my spending I could have saved more. I got tired- sick and tired- of living paycheck to paycheck and having nothing to show for my work. I started my savings journey and tracked my money, no more buying "wants" but absolute "needs." I was able to save even when working part-time as a substitute teacher and going back to school for nursing. Once I started working as an RN, I continued being frugal, and my saving just sped up. I was able to get a house in Oct 2022, with interest rate 5.375, with a big down payment on the house. If I had not had changed my mentality on saving and doing the work to get a better wage, I might still be complaining that it was not fair and that the odds were against me.

Even if you do what The Ramsey Shows says which I’ve done 1/2 of what you make goes to taxes via income taxes, property taxes, sales taxes then the ridiculous prices of food, education, housing, insurance, healthcare, divorce law, and childcare expenses. This country is completely destroying itself. The Ramsey Show says work more, live on less, and make yourself more valuable. I’ve done that and as I’ve become more valuable things have become more and more expensive! I made $200k this year and still can’t afford to buy a house in a good neighborhood with good schools near their moms because of the inflation of housing and mortgage costs. You guys need think about it.

The biggest takeaways I got from watching the video, reading the comments, and reflecting on my own life is that having a roommate/partner/spouse to share rent with is HUGE. But also living below your means and genuinely doing your best to save money where you can is crucial. We have so much available to us. We don’t need to consume ALL of it to be happy. Rotate your streaming services, learn to cook and shop sales, meal prep, bike to work if you can- public transport- car pool. Quit losing your stuff and stop buying more! Quit smoking- quit drinking. Your electric bill would be lower if you worked another day or took your kids outside instead of to the movies. There’s so much that can be done. Don’t give up because of your income. If you can manage at $15/h just imagine what you can do when you make more. And you will make more

Best thing my fiancée and I did was move in with his sister and her husband. We have the lower level of the townhouse, they have the upstairs, we share the middle - our rent is only 900/mo per couple. And way better than living with random roommates.

The advantages of being a perpetual victim is you're never responsible for anything that happens.

Imagine cutting your expenses as much as possible, working overtime to get the extra money, avoiding a car note, living with roommates, and investing as much as you possibly can. The path to building wealth is unpopular, because for most people, the path to getting wealthy is not going to look wealthy. The sad part is that, deep down, most people don’t see the point in actually being wealthy if no one actually believes you’re wealthy.

I'm 37 single and have put off dating and starting a family just because of finances. I make close to 50k per year. No car payment, rent keeps going up, no debt, things were bad before now with the inflation, and its impossible to purchase a home. Its just me and barely making it check to check without savings. The hustle culture kills people.

I keep getting denied for rentals for “not enough income”. My job pays 23/h

“HARD times create STRONG men. STRONG men create GOOD times. GOOD times create WEAK men and WEAK men create HARD times.”

I would rather work side hustles like crazy rather than have roommates lol.

That guy is telling the truth, especially in costly cities.

I used to think that $1600 per month in rent was crazy expensive….but it sadly has become the norm. I live in north Georgia currently and am paying that amount….even if I wanted to move back to Kansas (my home state), I’d be paying at least $1500 for something decent and safe.

Idk, I thought $25 an hour for my first job was crazy good. Then I realized after taxes that’s like 41k. It disappears quick, especially with high price rent ($2000 starting in my area)

I live in Las Vegas, NV and the average monthly rent is above 2k a month. I am paying $1850 the struggle is real and no I can't move do to child custody issues.

I see both sides of this. On one hand, theres always room for people to cut their expenses and quality of life to actually save up their money. However, I think that the “system” tries its hardest to break people. You can ditch your car note, but how will you get to work in a city or town with poor (if any) public transit? You can live with roommates, but what happened to all the affordable housing? You can stop eating takeout, but groceries cost almost as much these days. The problem is both: poor governance, there’s very little wiggle room for people nowadays; and the culture of consumerism which sucks up peoples savings.

Even when I had no debt making 25 an hour my rent was 50% of my income food, utilities, phone. Guy has a point. You need to make 70k a yr live better and get ahead.

The national median rent in the US Oct 2022 is $1,883. Of course there are cheaper areas but salaries and cost of living are usually relative. I'd love to see these guys make $20/hr and survive on their own in a city where $20/hr is the median wage.

127 for a cell phone bill? Best prepaid carriers are $25-30 a month. Any more than that and you're getting ripped off

$500 a month for groceries for a person is too much. I spent only $200 per month and I ate just fine. Fresh food and everything

The thing that has helped me substantially is becoming more aware of how I'm spending my life. I've looked at what really benefits me, and what doesn't. What do I need, and what can I live without? For example, entertainment. It's always nice to sit down and relax with some Netflix. But is a necessity that I can't live without? No. I could easily just go read a book or draw. In fact, I'd rather do that because then I feel better about myself in the long run.

Ramsey Solutions personalities believe that making $20+ per hour is easy and an entry level pay rate at Walmart, etc. Reality, most are lucky to even make $12 per hour working "low income" jobs. I wish that making $25 per hour was as easy as they make it sound.

Ramsey: we can cut down that grocery bill. Rice and beans beans and rice

I've moved around a lot to LCOL to HCOL locations and that rent is pretty spot-on nowadays. They also said so themselves that the vehicle payment is lower than average so he was being generous. One thing he didnt factor was health insurance which unless you have decent benefits can be $400/m for an individual.

This is why I disagree with the Ramsey strategy. They do not really put things in the real world. They put things in their world were they make more that $25 an hour. My husband only makes $22 an hour as a sheriff deputy for one of the bigger departments in our area. If we had to live just off his income at bear minimum not including a house note and not eating out we would could survive. Let's look at the reality of things, We have a cheap house note under $1000 a month. One vehicle paid off, the other is a used vehicle with a note at around $500. But even if we did a used note at 350, after you pay for the necessities in life; auto insurance, electricity, water and then your groceries and then we go for the fun stuff in life internet, TV and cell phone. If we lived just off of his income of a whopping 2600 a month we would have somewhere around 50 bucks at the end of the month. Note: gas was not included. The guy in the video has a valid point.

Expecting people to be able to pay cash for a good car is unrealistic. Especially for a young person or someone that is already struggling. I'd love to see the car that a young person is expects to be able to buy for cash.

I like how you bring up idaho, which has become very expensive to live. Here in North Idaho a 1 bedroom apartment starts $1400 to $1600 a month. 10 years ago it was affordable.

"What if you didn't have that used car payment?" Translation: "What if you couldn't get to work to make $25/hr?"

They are missing the biggest point here. A $25 per hour job won't qualify you for an apartment in many cities these days

I'm not worried about the margins of a responsible, sacrificing person who makes $20/hr. I'm worried about the margin trend since 1990s.

Lol $1659 for rent is considered now "cheap" in south Florida right now 🙃

The fact that there are still jobs out there that pays less then $15 per hr boggles my mind.

What makes me upset is I make $20 an hour and everytime they want to raise the minimum wage my standard of living goes down. I wish instead people were paid what their worth and not just a blanket amount of money.

Getting a roommate isn’t so simple and easy to do. There’s plenty of people who had a bad experience with roommates. You really don’t know who you going to move in with. Are they drama queens, will they pay their part of the rent, are they violent? I’ve seen some dangerous situations living with roommates. Just because they are single doesn’t mean they have to make sacrifices like that. People don’t tell struggling families to get roommates.

Eh, wages could be higher. Period. And people shouldn’t have to have roommates. Roommates can come with a wholeeee score of problems. It’s nice if you can have one you trust.. a sibling, a long long time friend. But with the way the world is now people aren’t rushing to shack up with just anybody. Entry level apartments and homes have all but disappeared and I take more of an issue with that than peoples budgets. The cost of living and wages (for many Americans, but not all) don’t match. End of story.

Regarding the car, even so, you'd have to save up for the car. So if you don't have the money saved, you have to start now by putting an equivalent amount into a fund for it.

I got hired working on an assembly line in 2006. Making $12 an hour then worked my way up it took 10 years to make 80k a year. I Was glad to have a job.

Our income and expenses are similar except we pay $700 rent for a nice trailer which is SUPER cheap and I’m very grateful for but we still are struggling. It’s definitely tight but doable. And we are trying to nix out some debt right now so it’s even more doable and we can finally get somewhere.

Living on $25 per hour is reasonably doable, if you live in a relatively inexpensive area of the country and don't have a family to support. It's tough if you live in an area like SoCal or NYC.

You can disagree with his formula but they guy is right. Less than $25 isn’t a leaving wage. Ask for a couple with kid how they’re living if just one of them works earning $25/hour.

Even if you do not have a car payment you still need to put away cash for a car. It isn't a 0 in your budget because you buy a car in cash.

My wife and I live off of roughly 15/hr each jobs. It’s possible. Were both college students and work roughly 30-40 hours a week. No parental support either. You’ve just got to be disciplined with your money. We would love to make 25/hr lol.

It's def possible to live comfortably on "less than 25". My generation I noticed has a problem with planning funds and living within our means. With that being said, the middle class is vanishing like a sea shore. Along with the illusion of a retirement fund and social security, we're in trouble.

Twenty-five dollars per hour means homeless in California.

ramsey solutions, solutions to people at age 30: gEt A rOoMmAtE

It always drives me crazy when someone talks about the "average rent" without saying for how big an apartment. Rent numbers are completely meaningless without that information.

Making 25/hr in San Fran is different than 25/hr in Arkansas

These people always say no more then a quarter of your pay should be spent on rent or mortgage. At twenty an hour. Where can you get an apartment less than 1k?

I make $22 an hour, $500 mortgage, own three cars and support my wife and kid.

Unfortunately, I will have to agree with the guy in the TikTok. If you make $25 an hour or less, you will be homeless or require a roommate.

My monthly expenses are $2000. I live in Central Jersey and my rent is $1100

500$ groceries for a single guy shows 🤣🤣🤣

Wish I would have come across Ramsey solutions way back before I got into this mess! It will take a few years, but gotta start somewhere! 💪

My daughter was a teacher until recently. She wanted to teach. Her kids loved her. But after struggling to live on roughly $25 an hour, she gave up and left the profession. For years and years, just about everyone in this country has agreed that teachers, who have a very important job, are way underpaid. I wouldn't blame them if every single teacher in this country went on a nationwide strike.

Personally, I turn off the shower any time I'm not rinsing. It cut my water bill by -60%. So for 10 minutes standing in the shower, the water is probably only on for a total of 1-2 minutes. Just a tip for people looking to minimize cost :)

Our household does ok on my husbands income which is similar to this wage. We were doing pretty well until gas prices were so high that we were spending more than our mortgage on gas for our vehicles and losing a hundred dollars or so every month because of it (rather than saving). So my husband bought a cheap little motorcycle and drove that to work all summer 🤣 saved a couple hundred bucks a month! Hopefully he will get his journeyman (and a 20% raise!!) soon so we should be able to sell the motorcycle and he can drive his truck again.

This was funny and enlightening all at the same time

1:42 Mortgage $1,425/month piti; cell phone $18/month; streaming $16/month; I have no vehicle payments; The other expenses listed are pretty close to mine.

The problem with a total national average like this is the fact that living in LA or New York is vastly different from living in Nebraska. It should be looked at in a more micro scale

Rice n beans beans n rice says Dave 😆 🤣 love it!!!

pre-paid cell phone vs post paid is dramatically different... wish I had known that earlier in life

And these two are taking what he said out of context. They don't bring up savings or retirement or insurance, etc. into account. They don't take inflation into account. At twenty an hour, that is 41k. Minus taxes and deductions.

We have worked 60-90 hours each week for many years to get out of debt and continue on our fpu journey. It totally pays off when you see others wondering why your so weird.

I remember making $1,500 month with a big $400/month car payment. You could only imagine what happened. Car broke down and I had a mini financial crisis. Live within your means

I just posted a video reacting to a reaction of this reaction video... You guys are amazing, keep fighting against this victim mentality, never stop encouraging people to take action to better their lives!!!

$20 an hour is fine without debt but many think debt is a necessity unfortunately...

Buying a home in Idaho is not cheap anymore 😂

Most employers pay very little so the only way to level the playing field is to live debt free.

Total Bs. Making $25 an hour is barely enough to scrape by in most cities. The wife and I make over 30/h each! We still have to watch the budget closely.

Average rent / cost of living / wages are completely blown out of reality due to places like NY and LA. You need to work either by regional averages ($25 / hr in middle of nowhere Mississippi can't compare to downtown NY, NY) or median price at a minimum.

Very few jobs pay well - most people are just surviving.

Okay, I make $18, I’m 21, I have two roommates and we each pay $850 which covers our rent and bills. Despite not having a car yet I have enough money to breathe. Relax. I used to have that guys mentality until I started thinking logically and figuring out how to budget properly. Uber costs me $400 a month, but I’m grateful it’s just that for now.

Lol $1600/mo on rent sounds like a dream try being born and raised in San Francisco where rent is $3500-$4500 a month for a run down Victorian apartment lol

The man is not that far out of whack. $25/hr is the new $15/hr from barely a decade ago, except the glaring problem that adults earning $15/hr a few years ago aren't earning $25. People getting out of debt using the baby steps are earning much more than $25/hr in 2022.

Right now a used car literally costs as much as a new one.

Lol I’m at 25.60… barely can get by. Trying to save for a house. Thankfully my husband makes much more, but we still struggle.

Believe me, $1600 is not a "nice apartment" these day. That's a mediocre studio in many places. You gotta have a really good friend to split a studio, haha.

We all need to be radio show hosts and the world will be a perfect place😅

I live in the Midwest and I could work 30 hours a week at $25/hour and still pay my bills

Anyone who has earned a four year university degree or higher in America should not be getting paid less than $30:00 an hour at a minimuim. It should go higher from there.

Honestly that spreadsheet of the cost of living is so bad. I was living at half or less of the cost of each line. Rent of $500/month in a beautiful house with roommates, $200/month on groceries, $50/month for ALL utilities (electricity, water, trash), $30/month cell phone with Google Fi, $0 streaming, and $0 on vehicle payments. All that is $1,100 compared to $3,300. Only a third of what this guy says! Cut your dang costs, it's not as difficult as people say.

$127/mo for a cell phone? Sure, if you’re making payments for the latest and greatest iPhone in your plan. If you have a paid for phone there are tons of plans out there for $25-30 a month. Taxes included.

I used to listen to and promote Dave's ideas. His ideas only hold water when we have sound money. We do not. Look at how Dave makes money. He doesn't use his own system. He leverages real estate to make his wealth. He doesn't work in a service industry. He works in social media. He isn't much different than a tik tok star. He sells the attention of his audience to make a buck. Normal people don't have this ability and never will.

Expenses are all relative: Buffalo, NY area Rent (studio apartment) 600 phone bill: 27 (my share of family plan) internet 40 elect: 28 medical insurance (retired Air Force) : 27 heat bill 25 gasoline 30 auto insurance with USAA; 52 (Toyota Camry paid off) food 120 Planet Fitness gym: 12 misc expenses/spending: 200 = $1161 Therefore: over $1300 of my remainning pension can be saved/invested/spent on frequent travel

I can go out today and find a studio apartment in a nice area of chicago and metro area for under $1k, even as low as $795. It’s all about choices and determining needs vs wants.

I worked $11 when I was 17. I’m 26 now, making $30, and I still haven’t completed my undergraduate yet. I was determined to make more and I did. You don’t necessarily have to be formally educated, you just have to be determined.

The car payment blows my mind!

It's all about how you decide to live and spend money but I agree. Anything under 70k a year (single) is garbage. Healthcare costs, retirement, savings, discretionary spending isn't even mentioned here. Under 120k married with kids is garbage.

I lived by myself the first year after college in 2007. After that I always had roommates till I got married. Best way to save money next to owning and renting to roommates

Ugh.. hate that I got so mad and did the math just to come to the conclusion they were right. On the bright side there may actually be a way in our budget for my wife to be a stay at home mom!